full extent_ palm of the hand
upward, finger held vertically with one side of the hand "against" the
reference point. The target will be found on the four o'clock line,
and touching the third finger, at 1000 yards distance, its right flank
at the bush and its left flank about 100 yards farther to the right.

The following case will illustrate more concretely the use of the
"Finger" system:

There is a red house about 3/4 mile to our front, and to the right of
this house and a hundred yards or so to its rear, there is a line of
trenches that can be seen with the aid of field glasses, but the
trenches are difficult to locate with the unaided eye. There is no
prominent landmark in the direction of this line of trenches, or on
either flank, except the red house mentioned. The company commander
locates the flanks of the line of trenches through his field glasses;
he then extends his arm forward horizontally its full length, palm up,
raises the fingers of his hand and, sighting on the line of trenches,
finds that the trench line has a length of four "finger widths," and
that the flank of the line nearest the red house is three "finger
widths" from it. He decides to divide the line into two sections of
two "fingers" each, and assign one section to each of his two
platoons. He then calls his platoon leaders (and range finders, if
necessary), and says, for instance: "Center of objective, five to the
right of that red house, First Platoon, two fingers; Second Platoon,
two fingers." The two platoon leaders then estimate the range and give
the company commander their estimates independently. The company
commander also estimates the range, and taking the average, then
announces the range, say 1300 yards, after which the platoon leaders
return to their platoons, and give, for instance, these instructions:
"The target is a line of trenches four 'fingers' long, and about 1300
yards away; the center of the target is five 'fingers' to the right of
that red house, at about 10 o'clock. We are to fire at the two fingers
on the right of the center and the Second Platoon will look after the
two fingers on the left of the center." (The leader of the Second
Platoon gives similar instructions.)

Every man in the platoon figures out the platoon objective and
endeavors to fix it with respect to some features of the ground so
that he will be able to pick it up promptly after his platoon starts
to advance. After fixing well in his mind the platoo